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Ontario says 154 new graduates will support corrections reform

Ontario has hired an additional 154 new correctional officers as the province says it “continues to reform its correctional system by investing in staffing.”

August 1, 2017  By Staff


The officers graduated on July 28, 2017, from the eight-week Correctional Officer Training and Assessment (COTA) program and are being deployed to 18 of Ontario’s 26 adult correctional facilities. They will also help “improve the delivery of rehabilitation and reintegration programming and strengthen mental health supports,” the province states.

“Congratulations to Ontario’s newest correctional officers. As our government works to reform the province’s correctional system, we need more people, with the right skills and training, to meet the needs of those in our custody and to ensure the safety of our institutions,” said Marie-France Lalonde, minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services. “I look forward to working with you, and with the dedicated staff in institutions across the province.”

Deployments include:

• Algoma Treatment and Remand Centre,
• Central North Correctional Centre,
• Monteith Correctional Centre,
• Sudbury Jail,
• Thunder Bay Jail,
• Thunder Bay Correctional Complex,
• Maplehurst Correctional Complex,
• Toronto South Detention Centre,
• Vanier Center for Women,
• Brockville Jail/St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre,
• Central East Correctional Centre,
• Ottawa Carlton Detention Centre,
• Quinte Detention Centre,
• Brantford Jail,
• Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre,
• Niagara Detention Centre,
• Sarnia Jail,
• South West Detention Centre.

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An additional 216 new recruits are scheduled to begin training on August 14, 2017.

In May, Ontario released the interim report from the Independent Advisor on Corrections Reform, which examines the use of segregation in Ontario’s adult correctional facilities. Ontario says it is taking action, including investing in new jails in Thunder Bay and Ottawa and introducing new legislation in Fall 2017.


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